average voters in public affairs. It is a problem which must deeply concern all who believe in a universal suffrage and have a deep concern for the millions who live under the republican form of government.

SUGAR INDUSTRY IN LOUISIANA.

CROP OF 1916 MORE THAN DOUBLE THAT OF PREVIOUS YEAR-A

REMARKABLE RECOVERY.

In discussing figures of the United States Bureau of Crop Estimates showing that Louisiana's sugar crop for 1916 was more than double that of the previous year, Senator John Dymond, of Louisiana, a recognized sugar authority, has this to say: "The report issued by the general Government of the production of sugar in Louisiana expressed in pounds as against the conventional long ton of 2240 pounds in which sugar data are now generally compiled has led to some confusion as to the relative size of the sugar crops produced in Louisiana and as what we may expect for the growing

crop.

"These Government statistics now report the 1916 sugar crop of Louisiana at 607,800,000 pounds, as against 275,000,000 in 1915. These figures reduced to long tons would place the Louisiana crop of 1916 at 271,339 long tons, as against the crop of the previous year of 122,768 long tons, or an increase in a single year of 148,571 tons, or more than double the previous crop. The great increase in a year is, of course, a feature.

"This extraordinary increase in the

course,

Louisiana crop was, of brought about by the high prices realized in the autumn of 1914, after the outbreak of the war in Europe. The large amount of cane saved for seed thus prevented the crop of 1915 from reaching its normal limits, although progressing under the assurance of at least a cent a pound protective duty on sugars and stimulated by the high prices prevailing at that time because of the war in Europe, but also confronted with free sugars May 1, 1916, under the then existing law.

"Before the passage of the Underwood bill, in 1913, the sugar crops of Louisiana varied from 300,000 to 350,000 long tons, and the generally low prices for sugar prevailing throughout the world left but little margin of profit in the business in Louisiana. The Underwood law then following, reducing the duty on sugar and indicating free sugar in 1916, produced ruinous conditions that reduced the crop of 1914 to about 221,000 long tons and that of 1915 to 123,000 long tons by the double causes, the positive contraction of sugar cane growing under the Underwood law and then by the subsequent considerably increased savings of seed cane on account of the promised cancellation of the free sugar clause of the Underwood tariff law and also by the enhanced prices of sugar.

"From these conditions we have. the rapid recovery of 1916. The present high prices prevailing for sugars cannot be expected to prevail after the European war is over, but the marvelously increasing appreciation of sugar as a food stuff and the enormous indebtedness of our coun

try now combine to give a degree of permanence to the future prosperity of the sugar industry in Louisiana that it has not had for many years. Throughout the whole State evidences of rapid recovery from the past depression of the industry are manifest, and new construction and the repair of old factories are announced from all quarters."

As to the outlook for the coming crop, Senator Dymond said that the agricultural side of the industry thus ;far this season has been satisfactory. He said that the seed cane was good, and that it had been well planted and the fields looked well, but that unseasonably cool weather had prevented the planters from having the green fields on the first of May that is the old Creole standard for promising cane crop.

From inquiries I have made generally, it seems likely that the sugar crop of this year may reach 700,000,000 pounds, which would be about 1,000,000 pounds greater than the crop of 1916, but still much short of the maximum crops raised here prior to 1913.

THE BY-ELECTIONS.

At the special election held June 26 in the Sixth Indiana Congressional district to choose a successor to the late Representative Daniel W. Comstock, the candidates were: Finly H. Gray, who formerly represented the district for three terms and who ran again as a Democrat, and Richard N. Elliott, who was the Republican

nominee. Both candidates live in

Connersville and the fight was conducted solely on national issues, many members of the Senate and House of Representatives taking part in the speech making. Even the President threw the weight of his influence into the scales, but without avail, the Republican candidate whose chances were considered none too good, winning by a majority of 2736 in a total vote of 31,500 which was only 65 per cent of the district's normal poll. Had the full vote been polled and Mr. Elliott's ratio been maintained, his majority would have been 4000. Last November Mr. Comstock's majority was 718.

President Wilson, in answer to a request, wrote a letter in which he declared: "the Hon. Finly H. Gray throughout his membership in the House has given the present administration the most generous and cordial support. It would afford me the greatest gratification to see him return to the House of Representatives." Though this endorsement was spread broadcast the intelligent voters of the district, which comprises rich farming and manufacturing sections, about half rural and half urban, were not in a frame of mind to accept the endorsement. Mr. Gray's constant and voluble opposition to all such preparedness measures as even the administration favored, being too well known to be wiped out by the President's blanket-approval and his wish to see a Democratic victory. The verdict rendered should teach Mr. Wilson the value of always hewing close to the facts and the folly of trying too long to divert attention from

a candidate's record by presidential approval.

The special election in the First North Dakota district on July 10, to fill a vacancy caused by the death of the late Representative Henry T. Helgesen, resulted in the election of John M. Baer of Fargo, candidate of the Non-Partisan League, by a plurality of about 1500, over a field of six other candidates. The League is a Farmers' movement essentially socialistic and seems to be a recrudescence of the old Granger and Populistic movements.

The Republicans, though they reelected Mr. Helgesen last November by a majority of 7000 were so demoralized by the League that they had no fewer than four candidates on the ticket and in addition a "nonpartisan progressive Republican" and a Democrat also ran, making seven candidates in all,

Mr. Baer, a nephew of the late James Whitcomb Riley, is barely over the 25 years necessary to qualify for service in the House of Representatives. He is not a farmer, but a civil engineer and was formerly a Democrat and an appointee of President Wilson as Postmaster at Beech, North Dakota, a position he gave up to draw cartoons for the League's paper at Fargo. Mr. Baer is said to have been picked out by A. C. Townley, the power behind the Non-Partisan League, which captured control of the state government last November.

The platform of the League contained the following among other planks:

“We stand for our country, right or wrong, as against all foreign governments. But we hold that when we believe our country wrong, we should endeavor to set her right.

"We demand that our government make immediate public declaration of the terms on which it will make peace, without annexations of territory, indemnities, contributions or interference with the right of any nation to live and manage its own internal affairs.

"We demand that the standard of living be maintained. We demand that gambling in the necessities of life be made a felony and that the government regulate food prices for producer and consumer.

"We declare that corporations like the Steel Trust and the du Pont Powder Company should not be allowed to retain the millions they are making out of war at a time when people are forced to purchase government bonds to help finance the war.

"Above the horrible slaughter of this war loom the ugly incitings of an economic system based upon exploitation. It is largely a convulsive effort on the part of adroit rulers of warring nations for control of the world's markets. Rival groups of monopolists are playing a deadly game for commercial supremacy. A lasting peace is possible only upon a new basis of human thought and relations, with government in fact of the people, by the people, for the people."

The platform of Mr. Burtness, a Republican, who was Mr. Baer's nearest competitor, said:

"This is no time for limited or conditional allegiance."

The platform of Mr. Baer said: "This is no time to make an issue of Americanism."

EXCESS PROFITS TAX. No provisions of the new war tax measure pending in Congress have

caused more uneasiness to business men than those relating to the excess profits tax, which, if passed in its original form, would have caused great hardship to many struggling concerns. The Finance Committee of the Senate has considered the objections in a reasonable way and greatly modified the provisions of the bill. Speaking of the protests received by him and the manner in which the Finance Committee of the Senate has handled the matter Senator Weeks recently said:

The excess profits tax upon corporations has been so intelligently handled by the Finance Committee of the Senate that almost every possible safeguard has been provided to protect new and growing corpora tions. Last month I directed Chairman Simmons' attention to the fact that in adopting the pre-war period as a basis for normal profits, there was danger of excessive taxation upon businesses which made subnormal profits during the pre-war period if that period was adopted as a basis for normal profits without the allowance of a proper exemption. This would apply both to growing corporations and many of the older organizations which, for peculiar reasons, were not prosperous during that period.

In the bill as reported to the Senate this situation has been recognized, and liberal provision is made. for corporations of this character. If profits during the pre-war period were less than six per cent upon the capital invested, the corporation may claim an exemption of six per cent before the profits tax applies, or they may claim as their normal profits the proportional profits made by representative corporations engaged in identical activities during that period. This latter exemption is also ex

tended to corporations organized subsequent to the pre-war period. Altogether I think the Finance Committee has handled this situation with care and when its action is fully understood by the New England manufacturers I believe it will meet with their approval.

I opposed this surtax, when the Finance Committee was whipping the bill into shape. I considered that the corporations were being taxed enough under the excess profits levy and the 2. per cent tax already existing. This surtax is particularly vicious.

Nothing ought to be done to prevent corporations from maintaining a suitable reserve. On the other hand action ought to be taken to prevent a corporation escaping taxation by failing to pay in dividends its earnings not needed for ordinary surplus purposes. The intent of this 15 per cent surtax was to prevent corporations escaping this tax, but in the way it would operate it would work a tremendous injustice. It ought to be amended or thrown out altogether.

Under the original Senate bill not only would corporations pay the existing 2 per cent tax, but also an additional 15 per cent on undistributed net income. The per cent tax imposed in the law of 1916, and the surtax of 15 per cent, under the bill as drafted by the Senate Finance Committee, would apply to all corporations, joint stock companies, or associations and insurance companies in the United States, whether organized under foreign or domestic laws. Partnerships are excluded.

The surtax would apply to all undistributed net incomes of corporations during the fiscal or calendar year of 1917 and thereafter until the end of the war. Exemption is made of undistributed profits used in establishments for maintenance of reserves required by law, and of those of railroads used for extensions or betterments. Besides, a 20 per cent

exemption is allowed upon net income directly engaged in the production or distribution of commodities or in banking..

EXPORTS TO ENEMY

COUNTRIES.

That it was high time to proclaim an embargo on the export of certain articles which have been finding their way, since the war began, in prodigious quantities to neutral countries and thence to the Central Powers, was evident to all who have studied export figures for recent years. As a belligerent the United States could not sit idly by and see her enemies supplied with the articles of commerce actually used in the manufacture of explosives and most needed to satisfy the wants of Germany and Austria. No longer could the authorities have too great a regard for the comfort or the profits of neutral traders. It is better, if either must suffer from the effects of this horrible war, that the people of the neutral countries should be inconvenienced or even made to suffer, than that, through our leniency and over-scrupulous regard for them, the war should be prolonged and the lives of our soldiers imperilled in the blood-stained trenches of Flanders and France.

Startling figures have been brought to the attention of the Council of Defence to show that Germany has obtained tremendous quantities of cotton through neighboring neutral countries, whose purveyors have driven a large and lucrative trade with Germany ever since the outbreak of hostilities, but especially during the past two years. In 1914 Sweden alone

sent into Germany 9,800,000 pounds of cotton. of cotton. Between 90,000,000 and 100,000,000 pounds of cotton from this country above the normal requirements of the neutrals of Europe are thought to have been taken to them since the war began. Spain, Denmark, Holland, Sweden and Norway have all shared in the tremendously increased takings of cotton. These five countries are said to have received approximately 525,000 bales of the cotton crop of 1915-1916, which is 190,000 bales more than they took of the crop of two years earlier. But of the crop of 1914-1915 the neutrals took 1,998,000 bales — an amount without precedent in the export history of this country.

Holland got about 35,000 bales the year preceding the war, 520,000 bales in the first year of the war, and about 100,000 bales in the second year of the war, when England, realizing the situation, shut down on the imports. Norway absorbed less than 2,000 bales in 1913-14, and in the following year jumped her small importations to 48,000 bales. This total was cut down to between 15,000 and 16,000 last year. Sweden took 28,000 The bales the year before the war. next year her imports rose to 75,000 bales, and last year they were only 10,000 bales less. Denmark jumped its imports of cotton to 35,000 in the second year of the war and was then shut off. Spain, which imported about 270,000 bales the year before the war, took 464,504 bales in 1915, and in 1916 she got 340,246 bales, the definite destination of which is uncertain.

It cannot be absolutely ascertained